''Bling Empire'' is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on January 15, 2021. The series focuses on the lives of wealthy, materialistic East and Southeast Asian Americans,

socialites A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

based in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

area, described as real-life ''

Crazy Rich Asians ''Crazy Rich Asians'' is a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to "introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience". He claimed the novel was loosely based on h ...

''. It is the first American reality television series in which the main cast are all of East and Southeast Asian descent. On March 10, 2021, Netflix renewed the series for a second season which premiered on May 13, 2022. The third season premiered on October 5, 2022. The sister Netflix series, ''Bling Empire: New York'', launched in January 2023.

Cast

*Kevin Taejin Kreider – Male model born in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

but adopted and raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Kreider narrates the series for the audience. *Kane Lim – Real estate developer and investor from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

with family interests in real estate, shipping, oil and tankers *Christine Chiu – Philanthropist,

couture Couture may refer to: People * Couture (surname) Places Belgium * Couture-Saint-Germain, a village in the municipality of Lasne, Belgium Canada * Couture crater and Lac Couture, an impact crater and the lake that covers it in Quebec, Canada ...

collector, and co-founder of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery inc. In 2021, she competed in the thirtieth season of '' Dancing with the Stars''. She was paired with

Pasha Pashkov ''Dancing with the Stars'' is an American dance competition television series that premiered on June 1, 2005, on ABC. It is the U.S. version of the UK series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', and one of several iterations of the '' Dancing with the ...

, they finished in fourteenth place after being eliminated in week 3. * Gabriel Chiu – Plastic surgeon and husband of Christine Chiu, and said to be a 24th direct descendant of the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

emperor. *Kelly Mi Li – Self-made entrepreneur and film producer born in China, who dated actor Andrew Gray in season 1 *Anna Shay – Part-Japanese, part-Russian socialite whose fortune comes from selling her father's company

Pacific Architects and Engineers Pacific Architects and Engineers (commonly known as PAE, or PA&E) is an American defense and government services contractor. Founded in 1955 by Edward Shay, it is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. For a time after 2016 it was owned by Platin ...

*Cherie Chan – Denim heiress and former singer *Jessey Lee – Family business is in furniture *Kim Lee – DJ and former model, raised by her Vietnamese mother, but searches for her father in season 1 *Andrew Gray – Kelly's boyfriend. Andrew is a model and an actor, who was best known for playing the Red Ranger in the 2013 show ''

Power Rangers Megaforce ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' is the twentieth season of the long-running television series ''Power Rangers''. The show is produced by SCG Power Rangers and began airing on Nickelodeon on February 2, 2013. The show was part of the ''Power Rangers ...

''. * Jaime Xie – Fashion influencer and model. She is the eldest daughter of Chinese-American tech businessman

Ken Xie Ken Xie () is an American billionaire businessman who founded Systems Integration Solutions (SIS), NetScreen, and Fortinet. He is CEO of Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm based in Silicon Valley. Xie was previously the CEO of NetScreen, which was a ...

*Guy Tang – Hairdresser and singer-songwriter * Mimi Morris (season 2) * Dorothy Wang (season 2) – Youngest daughter of controversial Chinese-American businessman and slumlord billionaire Roger Wang

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2022)

Season 3 (2022)

Reception

For the first season, review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 90% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Bling Empire'' may be another celebration of lavish wealth, but the focus on an Asian American cast gives this reality program an intriguing layer of cultural celebration." Diane Gordon of ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

'' thought the television series was more than the "grotesque opulence" that it depicted, with compelling characters among the cast, some of whom were exploring their identity. Eilidh Hargreaves of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' found the "epic rivalries", "ridiculous" problems, wild whims, "self-serving" philosophy of the main characters to be compulsive viewing and "deliciously odious to observe".

Spin-off

In October 2022, Netflix announced a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

-set spin-off series ''Bling Empire: New York''. It stars Dorothy Wang, who was a cast member in season 2 of the original series. The spin-off was released on January 20, 2023.

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original current series 2021 American television series debuts 2020s American reality television series Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television shows set in Los Angeles English-language Netflix original programming Asian-American television Asian-American culture in Los Angeles